When I was growing up in New Jersey, it was semi-affectionately called "The Mosquito State." Unfortunately, it recently has been redefined by a pesky swarm of reality television shows.

"The Real Housewives of New Jersey," "Jersey Shore" and "Jerseylicious" depict a New Jersey that I seldom saw. While all stereotypes have some basis in reality, I rarely met classless, crude and coarse people who couldn’t create a standard English sentence, wore a king’s ransom around their necks, rarely shaved, adorned themselves with tattoos that would make the Maori envious and had melees at baptism celebrations.

Perhaps the producers could provide an opening disclaimer that any resemblance between the people and pettiness depicted in the following shows and the citizens of New Jersey is scary.